It's always a good idea to go into something with low expectations. After
reading all the negative reviews from this site, I expected very little from
this cruise line. Fortunately, my expectations were exceeded. I'd still rank NCL
the worst of all cruise lines I've been on (Celebrity, Princess & Carnival are
the others I've experienced), but this is still a worthy cruise line and this is
a great itinerary.

My partner and I rented cars at all stops and that proved to be a decent
decision. Alamo in Honolulu however will shuttle you to get their cars, but not
shuttle you back. It's a 3 mile walk to the cruise ship or a $25 cab ride. We
walked and enjoyed the exercise. In Maui and Kauai, there are shuttles both
ways. On the Big Island, Alamo wanted the car back too early (before 3:30pm), so
we rented from a place two blocks from the ship that was actually cheaper
(crappy car, but who cares for one day) and allowed us to keep it another hour.
With gas, it ended up being about $60 a day for rental cars. One excursion is
usually $60-100 per person and the rental car offers plenty of freedom. In Maui
there's FREE overnight parking next to the ship, while in Kauai, the closest
spot is $10 a night.

This was my first experience with "freestyle dining". The best part of NCL
dining is that formal dress is never required. I hate packing a suit or wearing
one and slopping food all over myself (I'm a piggy eater). We ate in the main
dining room three times and the rest in the paid ones. Service and food are
better in the pay sites but service is friendly everywhere. Food in the main
dining room isn't horrible though, just not up to par with other cruise lines.
It's best to go early for the free dining rooms unless you want to wait to be
seated and then wait and wait to eat. One night we arrived to the main dining
room at 8pm and didn't finish eating until after 11pm! At least our table
partners were interesting. This brings me to another point - you are never
required to eat with somebody you don't know. Sometimes I like meeting new
people and sometimes I'd rather eat alone, so it's cool to have that option.

Staff onboard the ship were very friendly and seemed to enjoy their jobs. I hear
though that NCL has a hard time keeping the ship fully staffed as American
workers are not as loyal to their contracts as foreign workers on other ships.
It does seem like they are understaffed in the main dining rooms and possibly in
housekeeping. Room stewards were slower to clean rooms than I'm accustomed to on
other ships, but still acceptable. The boat was clean and every time you boarded
the ship, they sprayed your hands with a disinfectant. This must help as there
were no outbreaks on this cruise.

A couple other great things about this cruise include not having to deal with
customs (because you never travel outside the USA), and embarking/disembarking
is much less congested because only half the ship is doing so at any one time.

The most expensive part of this cruise trip could very well be the flight to
Hawaii. For my partner and I, that wasn’t the case because we were able to use
award saver airline miles to get to Maui (total cost =$10, 35k miles with
United). The timing was near perfect, the cruise price right, and the free
upgrade to an ocean view room was really cool too (we booked 10 days prior to
sailing). So overall, while I can certainly complain about some things, I
certainly have no regrets taking this cruise.